Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic condition where an individual’s body cannot maintain healthy levels of glucose in the blood. Unhealthy blood glucose levels can lead to a variety of long term and short term problems. Glucose is a type of sugar, and is the body’s main source of energy. To function properly, our bodies require sugars (glucose) to be converted into energy. The hormone, insulin, is essential for the conversion of glucose to energy, and is therefore responsible for stabilizing the amount of sugar in the blood. People with diabetes tend to have insufficient insulin levels which results in a build-up of glucose in the blood. There are three main types of diabetes:

Type 1 diabetes: With this type of diabetes, the body’s immune system attacks and destroys cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. It is an autoimmune condition, and the cause of this reaction is currently unknown. This type is less common than type 2 diabetes (affecting approximately 10% of people), and usually occurs before the age of 40. People with this type of diabetes have to depend on insulin injections